Top all-time · #472
Benjojo
Personal blog · blog.benjojo.co.uksecuritywebsystems
Benjojo writes benjojo blog, a personal blog at blog.benjojo.co.uk about security, web and systems. Since 2015, 121 different Hacker News readers have linked it 186 times, most often “DNSFS – Store files in others' DNS resolver caches”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-03-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 8 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for hands-on networking and hardware posts (BGP, SSH keys, DNS as a filesystem, smart SFPs), called fun and curious, and one of the few blogs that hits the mark.
- Recommended for · 8 comments
- Called 'great', 'fantastic' and 'one of my favorites'; pointed to as 'interesting' and as something to 'look into'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- DNSFS – Store files in others' DNS resolver caches16 people · 19 mentions · first linked 2018-01-12
- Auditing GitHub users’ SSH key quality8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-06-02
- Where is all of the Fediverse?7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-01-12
- Mapping the internet with Hilbert curves6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-04-20
- Ghost in the ethernet optic6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2022-01-13
- Making art with SSH key randomart6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-05-01
- What would a EvE online Internet look like?5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-02-03
- How much traffic do I get from North Korea anyway?5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-10-25
- Playing battleships over BGP4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-05-21
- Encoding Data in Dubstep Drops4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-04-12
What Hacker News says?
And then there's this too: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/dns-filesystem-true-cloud-st...
Comment linking /post/dns-filesystem-true-cloud-storage-dnsfs
on “Mess with DNS”Submitted Writing userspace USB drivers for abandoned devices as a story · 872 points
HN discussionTwo things spring to mind: a whole computer inside an SFP module[1] and the O.MG cable[2] [1]: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/smart-sfp-linux-inside [2]: https://shop.hak5.org/products/omg-cable
Comment linking /post/smart-sfp-linux-inside
on “The tiny chip that powers Montreal subway tickets”Submitted Auditing GitHub users’ SSH key quality as a story · 490 points
HN discussionGreat point. That's already happened, and a lot of weak keys were found [0]. [0] https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/auditing-github-users-keys
Comment linking /post/auditing-github-users-keys
on “Show HN: My SSH server knows who you are”Submitted How 1500 bytes became the MTU of the internet as a story · 433 points
HN discussionThere is a URL for the keys of a user. And phillipo used the dataset benjojo published a few month ago when he scraped all the keys: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/auditing-github-users-keys
Comment linking /post/auditing-github-users-keys
on “Show HN: My SSH server knows who you are”Submitted Cheap HDMI capture for Linux as a story · 398 points
HN discussionI do wonder when the first "smart SFP" with embedded wi-fi appears - an unlabeled RPi in a junction box raises alarms, but a SFP module that's just a bit longer than the rest? Many would rather assume on first glance that accounting bought some cheaper crap due to delivery chain issues. (For those OOTL, see https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/smart-sfp-linux-inside - it made the rounds on Twitter and HN a couple days ag…
Comment linking /post/smart-sfp-linux-inside
on “The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)”Submitted X86 assembly doesn’t have to be scary as a story · 352 points
HN discussionNot sure if they are still easily available but look into https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/userspace-usb-drivers .
Comment linking /post/userspace-usb-drivers
on “Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi”Submitted Playing battleships over BGP as a story · 352 points
HN discussion"Ultrasonic watermark" reminds me of this[1] great blogpost. It's not the same thing but based on the same concept. [1] https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/encoding-data-into-dubstep-d...
Comment linking /post/encoding-data-into-dubstep-drops
on “What You Should Know Before Leaking a Zoom Meeting”Submitted BGP handling bug causes widespread internet routing instability as a story · 336 points
HN discussionAnother implementation https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/traceroute-haikus and I've seen many more.
Comment linking /post/traceroute-haikus
on “Engineer distributes resume via IPv6 traceroute”Submitted Who is squatting IPv4 addresses? as a story · 309 points
HN discussionShort answer: no Tape is really complicated and physically challenging, and there are no incentives for people investing insane amounts of time for something that has almost no fan base. See the blog post about why you don’t want tape from some time ago. Edit: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/lto-tape-backups-for-linux-n...
Comment linking /post/lto-tape-backups-for-linux-nerds
on “DIY NAS: 2026 Edition”Submitted I may be the only evil bit user on the internet as a story · 295 points
HN discussionIf this looks familiar, it's probably because you've recently read Ben's post about making art from SSH key randomart: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/ssh-randomart-how-does-it-wo...
Comment linking /post/ssh-randomart-how-does-it-work-art
on “Playing battleships over BGP”Submitted LTO Tape data storage for Linux nerds as a story · 293 points
HN discussionLove it. But I like the skrillex steganography even more! https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/encoding-data-into-dubstep-d...
Comment linking /post/encoding-data-into-dubstep-drops
on “Playing battleships over BGP”Submitted Building Ultra Long Range Toslink as a story · 279 points
HN discussionhttps://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/smart-sfp-linux-inside This SFP has an embedded ARM processor running Linux. It’s pretty meta, but one could imagine a wireguard control network for these. The article even describes using wireguard-go on the embedded side.
Comment linking /post/smart-sfp-linux-inside
on “A userspace WireGuard client that exposes itself as a proxy”Submitted The death of a TLD as a story · 267 points
HN discussion(author of the post) Yes, this is exactly what I did in the post I linked to: https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/bgp-path-attributes-grave-er...
Comment linking /post/bgp-path-attributes-grave-error-handling
on “BGP handling bug causes widespread internet routing instability”Submitted Sysadmin friendly high speed Ethernet switching as a story · 265 points
HN discussionThis was the API Ben Cox used to gather more than a million of public keys from (active) Github users to analyze their strength or weakness, which finally led GitHub to revoke the vulnerable/weak keys and notify the users.[0] Edit: Better source. [0] https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/auditing-github-users-keys
Comment linking /post/auditing-github-users-keys
on “Show HN: Invite friends to SSH into your laptop using their GitHub handle”Submitted Reclaiming IPv4 Class E's 240.0.0.0/4 as a story · 245 points
HN discussionblame my friend Ben, I just cloned his blog and Cynthiaified it :P https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/
Comment linking /
on “The Nintendo Switch Switch”Submitted DNSFS – Store files in others' DNS resolver caches as a story · 243 points
HN discussion
